More Bogus Brady or How NOT to Defend Our Gun Rights

There are two common "strains" of the Sarah Brady bogus quote, one short, one long:

"Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed
when those who would resist us are totally disarmed."

"Our main agenda is to have ALL guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn't matter if you have to distort facts or even lie. Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."

This tall-tale gets further embellished by claiming either Sarah Brady made her statement in a letter to Howard Metzenbaum or the quote appeared as an article, again the National Educator, page 3, is usually cited.

Here is a small sample taken from the sadly large number of Web pages mentioning the bogus quote and illustrating the above points (visited September, 7, 2007):

A footnote (193) in this law review article purports to cite the Congressional Record of 1989 and 1994 when Congress was considering a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons. The footnote reads:

140 CONG. REC. S1864-01, S1866 (daily ed. Feb.
28, 1989) (statement of William Pattison). Sarah Brady
has been cited as stating that, "Our task of creating
a socialist America can only succeed when those who
could resist us have been totally disarmed." 140 CONG.
REC. H3063-05. H3071-H3072 (daily ed. May 5, 1994)
(statement of Joel Carlston). Such a result is exactly
what the Framers of the Second Amendment sought to
prevent. James Madison stated, "Americans need never
fear their government because of the advantage of
being armed. . ." Id.

William Pattison made no such statement regarding Sarah
Brady. In fact, it is highly unlikely he would have, since
he was speaking on behalf of the National Association
of Police Organizations urging Congress to approve the
"assault weapons" ban. A check of all statements for
that day reveals no reference to "the quote." (Mr. Pattison's entire statement can be viewed here.)

The 1994 instance, (statement from Joel Carlston, Wyoming President of Americans Against Gun Control), not only mentions the Brady quote, but incorrectly quotes James Madison from Federalist No. 46, and recites another bogus quote falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson. ("The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.")

Rather than employ an apocryphal quote to expose the Brady Campaign's (formerly HandgunControl, Inc.) agenda, why not emphasize their actual record on guns which includes supporting an outright ban on civilian ownership of handguns and handgun ammunition? (See GunCite's "Nobody Wants to Take Your Guns")